"The Twilight Zone" Gramma/Personal Demons/Cold Reading (1986)

Directors:

Bradford May
Peter Medak

Writers:

Harlan Ellison (teleplay) (segment)
Stephen King (short story) (segment)

TV Series:

"The Twilight Zone" (1985)

Original Air Date:

14 February 1986 (Season 1, Episode 18)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Fantasy | Mystery | Thriller | Horror

Plot:

An imaginative young boy who is terrified of his ancient and infirm grandmother is left in charge of her when his mother is called away.

Plot Keywords:

Grandmother | Demon | Writer | Authenticity | Artifact

Cast

Barret Oliver	...	George (segment "Gramma")
Darlanne Fluegel	...	Mother (segment "Gramma")
Frederick Long	...	Gramma (segment "Gramma")
Martin Balsam	...	Rockne S. O'Bannon (segment "Personal Demons")
Clive Revill	...	Rockne's Agent (segment "Personal Demons")
Joshua Shelley	...	Herman Gold (segment "Personal Demons")
Tommy Madden	...	Creature #1 (segment "Personal Demons")
Marlena Giovi	...	Widow (segment "Personal Demons")
Penny Baker	...	Pam (segment "Personal Demons")
Stephen Flanigan	...	Gary (segment "Personal Demons")
Billy Curtis	...	Creature (segment "Personal Demons")
Gary Friedkin	...	Creature (segment "Personal Demons")
Kevin Thompson	...	Creature (segment "Personal Demons")
Daniel Frishman	...	Creature (segment "Personal Demons") (as Dan Frishman)
Lou Carry	...	Creature (segment "Personal Demons")

Trivia:

The segment "Personal Demons", written by Rockne S. O'Bannon, depicts O'Bannon as a dried-up writer near the end of his career, as played by Martin Balsam. O'Bannon was only 31 at the time the program aired; far from being "dried-up", he went on to script other TV shows, and created the film Alien Nation (1988) and the subsequent TV series "Alien Nation" (1989), and the series "SeaQuest DSV" (1993) and "Farscape" (1999).

Demon genes passed down to grandson?/Writers guilt/Radio special effects.

Episode 18 of "The New Twilight Zone" from the 1985-86 CBS series featured three segments "Gramma", "Personal Demons", and "Cold Reading".

"Gramma" based on a short story from legendary horror novelist Stephen King features a young boy who's left at home to care for his ill and old grandmother. Oddly and strangely she stays at the end of a shuttered room at the end of the hall. Soon strange sounds, voices, wind, and spooks start to occur to the little boy. Finally he finds out a big surprise about grandma, and when mom returns though the boy has made it you can tell by his eyes an old family tradition has been passed on.

"Personal Demons" has Rockne O' Bannon(Martin Balsam) as a washed up and struggling old TV show writer who's searching for new ideas and stories to get over this latest case of writer's block. Ideas and haunted memories soon appear thru little men that look demon like, has the imagination gotten the best of him? Yet it appears these little guys have put a spark in his imagination for new writing ideas.

"Cold Reading" takes place in an age before the golden age of TV, when radio was king as people depended on it for their entertainment. As great plays are read over the airwaves like "Dick Noble", "African Explorer" it starts to invoke powers over the air as in the studio it's a special effects delight as the radio got a glimpse into the future of the TV age and it's way of entertainment.

Overall one of the better episodes of "The New Twilight Zone".